How To Get Flash On Your iPad

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A reader wants to play Flash files on an iPad. What are the options?

My iPad seems not to support the Adobe Flash Player, which is a nuisance. Is there a solution or any alternative short of buying a tablet that does support the player?David Buck, by email

Not only doesn't iOS support Flash, the late Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, was an ardent critic, citing problems with security, performance, battery life and reliability, and his faith in HTML5 and JavaScript standards. Whatever it's shortcomings, and security really isn't an issue on iOS, the fact is Flash animations are very widely used, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future and many Apple users are justifiably irritated buy its absence. Fortunately there are workarounds and one of the simplest is to use a browser called Puffin, free from the App Store. This remotely processes Flash content on its servers before forwarding it to your i-device. It's not a complete solution and some videos might be a little choppy but it's definitely worth trying.